76°F
weather icon Clear

Does city desire family housing?

Many issues seem to be a perpetual part of Boulder City politics. One of those that always seems to arise during an election is how does Boulder City continue to keep our schools filled with children? Over half the population of Boulder City is older than 50.

The logic encourages that it might be useful to attract younger families to Boulder City for the city to remain demographically resilient.

In reading the Sunday, May 9, (Las Vegas) Review-Journal, I had to laugh. StoryBook Homes at Cadence in Henderson is building 1,500- to 1,800-square-foot homes starting in “the upper $300,000s.” StoryBook Homes is also building homes in Boulder City. I attempted to buy one of those homes on one of the cheapest lots. With minor upgrades the price became $511,000. Housing prices continue to climb throughout Clark County.

Boulder City appears to be missing a unified directive concerning housing. Since the community is controlling growth, it would benefit from strategic initiatives concerning city property offered for development using requests for proposals that meet community objectives. For example, the City Council worked together to accomplish the last subdivision on the back half of the municipal golf course, which provided the funds to buy the Eldorado Valley.

If Boulder City wants to attract young families, homes starting at $600,000 to $700,000 will not accomplish that objective. The city is limited to 120 development units per year.

If the community, if the City Council, wants to attract young families, new housing must be smaller in size like the Cadence community in Henderson. The minimum house in StoryBook Homes in Boulder City is over 2,000 square feet. That is most of the problem.

The City Council in its RFPs for StoryBook could have asked for smaller size housing in the range of 1,500 to 1,800 square feet to be built at the property called Boulder Hills Estates at Adams (Boulevard) and Bristlecone (Drive). Boulder City accommodated StoryBook Homes to build a subdivision. The price per acre of land to be sold at StoryBook’s request was going to be $300,000 per acre regardless of when StoryBook built the homes. While property values were rising, StoryBook continued to buy land for $300,000 per acre in the first, second and four years later, the third phase. What did Boulder City get for its developer largess?

Boulder City needs a strategic unified approach to government once again that works to gain benefits for the community instead of a developer. Hopefully, our new City Council will enjoy the benefits of creating a strategic initiative benefiting the community’s unified perspective.

The opinions expressed above belong solely to the author and do not represent the views of the Boulder City Review. They have been edited solely for grammar, spelling and style, and have not been checked for accuracy of the viewpoints.

Eric Lundgaard is a former mayor and City Council member and president of the Aquarian Theosophy Foundation.

MOST READ
LISTEN TO THE TOP FIVE HERE
THE LATEST
Bursting our bewitched bubble

It’s that dreaded time of year again. Monstrous in magnitude. A mysterious ritual. Strange, scary, sinister, and spooky. Macabre and menacing. Dark and gloomy. Dastardly and disturbing. Gruesome and ghoulish. Frightful. Creepy. Petrifying. Even eerie. A wicked, morbid tradition that haunts our city annually.

Mayor’s Corner: Helmets save lives

Emergency personnel in Clark County estimate they respond to four accidents each day involving bikes, e-bikes, or e-scooters. A few of these accidents have involved fatalities of minors — a grim reminder of the dangers of these devices when not used responsibly. Our goal as city leaders is to prevent tragedies from occurring. Any loss of life has a dramatic impact on families, loved ones, friends, as well as on the entire community.

Cheers to 40 years in the biz

I thought I’d talk a little about the newspaper business on the heels of the Review winning seven statewide awards the other night in Fallon.

AI is here. Just ask your neighbors

“I’ve done 10 albums in the past year,” my across-the-street neighbor, Dietmar, told me Sunday morning as we stood in the street between our two houses catching up. He added that his wife, Sarah, had put out two collections of songs in the same time period, adding, “You know it’s all AI, right?”

Astronaut lands in Nevada, so to speak

I wish to begin by noting that when it comes to politics, I am registered nonpartisan. So when writing about Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, I’m focusing (well, for the most part), on his role as a retired NASA astronaut, not as a politician.

The patriot way

Today is Patriot Day, a day most of us refer to as 9/11. In the U.S., Patriot Day occurs annually on Sept. 11 in memory of the victims who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Program helps homebuyers in Boulder City

Owning a home is part of the American Dream. Unfortunately, the steep rise in rental rates and increasing costs for goods and services have left many home buyers struggling to save enough for a down payment.